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Re: Best Late Fall Varroa treatment?

If they are contemplating treatment after they start seeing visual signs of mites in the hive, the hive is likely doomed, so they would be wasting their time.

Is that your take on only late fall mite issues, or overall?

I heard Mike Palmer explain that he waits until he sees a few DWV bees crawling around, then treats. I have routinely had high mite count hives that showed visible signs of mites (PMS, DWV) that I treated and they made it just fine. Never this late in the year though. I would consider them a gonner at this point in time.

Re: Best Late Fall Varroa treatment?

It was in that vimeo thing. I don't know if that's what he said. But that's what I remember him saying.

The reasoning was that he was building up resistance, and breeding for resistant stock. He noticed over successive years he was treating later and later. At least, again, that's what I remember him saying.

Re: Best Late Fall Varroa treatment?

Originally Posted by Specialkayme

Is that your take on only late fall mite issues, or overall?

If you wait until you start seeing visible signs of secondary infection from varroa, the hive is pretty sick. So be it late fall, you have a sick hive entering winter. Its not to far of a stretch to suggest that a hive entering winter with high mite loads and visable signs of viral infection probably will not make the winter.
The take home message is to monitor the mites early in fall so that infections can be controled
if you do it the other way, hives will die